Mason 2x3 or 2x3XL

[wkies]

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a little hobby evaporator for next season. Plenty familiar with an evaporator having run a 2x6 rig for 10+ years. After many hours of researching, I really like WF Mason's 2x3. I reached out to Bill to understand the difference between 2x3 and 2x3 XL. Here are the differences: "The standard evaporator has a 3 section pan,the XL evaporator has a 4 section pan. The standard preheater sits on top of the pan is heat by the steam,the XL preheater sits behind the pan on the arch with fire on the preheater. The XL arch is 6" longer to accommodate the preheater. The XL pan being 4 sections is Reversible to keep the pan cleaner."

Leaning towards the XL. Does anyone have a 2x3 XL that is willing to share photos? How much sap does it boil per hour? Additional insight or thoughts?

Thanks all.

[eustis22]

I bought my XL a year ago last May and have nothing but high praise for it. Were you planning on getting a blower? I have a blower and would say that I'm doing 10 GPH with the blower on low.

I will add a pic tonight as yesterdays pic is all Steamy

[wkies]

Yes, I was thinking about purchasing the blower.

Eustis22: I know its somewhat of a loaded question but what's your thought on the number of taps the 2x3 XL can handle, considering no RO and boiling during the evening/weekends? Looking forward to seeing your rig.

[tombaisley]

I have a new this season 2x4 XL with a blower, I have 75 taps on tubing and buckets. I run the blower about 1/2 speed and get 10-12 GPH with out even trying. It is early and everything is still froze up, but right now I wish I had more taps.

[eustis22]

I do not understand this question: "It looks like the new preheater would heat a lot more effectively, but would contain several gallons of sap that will not flow into the evaporator. How do you deal with that?"

I asked for the bricking because 8 GPH without a blower is very near the 10 GPH I get WITH a blower. If I didn't have the blower I think my rate would be well below 8 GPH and, outside of the location of the preheater pan, the bricking is the only variable I can think of. I will try to get a pic of my bricking if I can. I do note that you have a cavity behind your wall where I have bricked up to the bottom of the smoke hole. How's the back of your pan during boiling?

I also use a turkey fryer to heat my sap to pretty near boiling before dumping in the preheater. But last season (first w/the XL) I had the sap in the preheater in a roiling boil a few times.

[RedMapleCreek]

The back of my pan boils well, really no difference front to back. When I bought the evaporator Bill told me to locate the wall just behind the grate and leave the void space beyond it.

Another thing that could be affecting your boil rate is your wood and how often you fire it. I use very dry hemlock split no larger than wrist size and I fire it about every 6 minutes. Also, the depth that you run in the evaporator can affect the rate, I run between 3/4" and 1" deep to get a maximum boil rate.

To clarify my earlier question, the picture of your preheater shows a valve on the side near the bottom, which I assume is to drain the sap that would remain below the ball valves which normally feed the evaporator pan. My question is when you no longer have enough sap in your preheater to flow into the evaporator what do you do? I assume you could drain the preheater using that lower valve and then dump that into the evaporator, but continuing to fire the evaporator with nothing in the preheater (which in your case is directly over the fire) could warp it. Or do you just save the sap remaining in the bottom of the preheater until your next boil? In any case, your preheater is obviously a lot better at preheating than mine, since yours gets direct fire. I feed cold sap directly into my preheater and I think the sap probably gets warmed more by trickling down the feed pipe from the preheater than it actually does in my nonfired preheater.

[tombaisley]

I let the fire die down some and drain the preheater down to 1/2" or so and quickly add a pail of water then I add the preheater sap to the pan for a final rolling boil before shutting down

[eustis22]

I have 50 taps on 3/16 gravity and I feel that would be about the maximum sap processed as I also boil nights/weekends. I am messing with a small RO system but its not a regular thing with my sap. Yesterday I did 50 gallons in about 5 hours, no RO (didn't get sugar % before boiling) and blower on low.

[wkies]

That’s super helpful, thanks. Any additional hints or thoughts is always appreciated.

[RedMapleCreek]

I have a Mason 2x3XL with no blower and can get 8 GPH. Last season I collected 730 gallons of sap from 48 taps and used a RO Bucket to reduce that in half to feed the evaporator. Was very pleased with how it all worked Would have been a lot more boiling without that RO. I definitely recommend the XL because it is nice to be able to reverse the flow every other boil to manage the niter. Also not having the preheater directly over the pan prevents condensation from dripping back into the pan. I have 50 taps this season but yet to get any sap due to all the deep snow and cold we have had, probably will be at least another week before I see any sap.